The teacher said faculty members have to give a student a 65 even if the student didn’t come to class.

Keith Williams of the Memphis-Shelby County Education Association teachers union told WREG that other schools in the district have also set a grade floor to boost grades. He said he has expressed concerns about the practice at past school board meetings.

Williams said “you cannot give to students what they do not earn” and that principals do not have the right to put teachers in these “troublesome kinds of situations.”

There should be a uniform policy across the district, he said. The district’s grading policy doesn’t refer to minimum grades, according to WREG.

A Shelby County Schools spokesperson said they were looking into the matter at Kingsbury High School.

Several years ago, Metro Nashville Public Schools issued a new grading policy telling teachers they could no longer give grades lower than 50. The policy also removed penalties for late work and said students should be given opportunities to retake tests. The changes prompted concerns about grade inflation and were seen as an attempt to boost graduation rates.